About me

My name is Kirsten Gotting and I’m postdoctoral researcher at the Harvard University in the Extavour Lab. Before this, I completed my Ph.D. at University of Wisconsin - Madison in the Currie Lab, after doing research at The Stowers Institute for Medical Research in the Sánchez Lab.

Academics

I graduated from the University of Oregon in 2013 with a BA in Biology with minors in Chemistry and Spanish. After graduating, I joined the University of Oregon Bioinformatics and Genomics Master’s Program which I completed in 2014. I used this program as a stepping stone to learning bioinformatics and genomics. I moved to Kansas City, Missouri to complete my master’s research internship with the Sánchez Lab and The Stowers Institute for Medical Research. My project involved developing an self-documenting RNA-seq pipeline, which I then applied to many projects in the lab. After my internship, I was hired on to continue working as a Bioinformaticist in the Sánchez Lab where I stayed until 2017 and collaborated on many different projects.

I am broadly interested in evolutionary genomics, and for my PhD work I joined Cameron Currie’s lab at the beginning of 2018. In the Currie lab, I use field work, molecular biology, microbiolgy and bioinformatics to explore the evolution and adaptation of microbes to their environments using the fungus-growing ant model symbiosis. One of my major projects aimed to understand the evolution ofthe specialized mycoparasite Escovopsis.

Outside Academia

Before I joined my PhD I avidly rock climbed. I had the privilege of traveling to Ten Sleep, Wyoming for the summer of 2017 to climb for a couple months before starting my research. I still love climbing, and plan to return to it regularly someday. Now, one of my favorite hobbies is reading! My favorite books I read recently are ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’, ‘Pet’, and ‘Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body’. I also love gardening, cooking, crocheting, and hiking (although you’ll probably find me on the trail staring at plants and fungi rather trying to make it to the end).

Photo Credit: Louie Anderson

Learn more about me in these features!

How Evolutionary History Can Guide Our Future (2020)

Biological Treasure Hunters (2014)